What Happens if You Read Classic Literature?

[00:00:01]All right. So, we know we're supposed to be reading classic literature, right?

[00:00:04]We've been told over and over again that it's good for you. Okay? It builds character. Uh it expands your mind. It's going to make you a better person. Is this true or is this something your high school English teacher was just telling you? I've spent the last two or three years reintroducing myself and restudying the classics, okay? Or what I consider classic literature anyway.

[00:00:28]We're talking about stuff like Mark Twain, Shakespeare, J.R. Tolken, John Steinbeck, um, you know, uh, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Dickens, things like that. And I've developed some opinions about what reading classic literature does to you.

[00:00:48]So, I've made multiple other videos here about what if you do this, what if you did that. friend of mine, Michael Kvon, sweet guy that he is, said that I make videos with titles like what if you read for 60 minutes standing on the back of an elephant in the rain. Uh, so yeah, I've made similar videos about what happens if and this is another what happens if video, but this one was a what happens if you read classic literature video. My name's Randy Ray.

[00:01:18]This is the litter Texan. It's my YouTube show where I talk about books and literature, high brow, lowbrow, everything in between. We try not to get too snobby about anything. But in this video, someone might accuse us of being snobby because we're going to talk about classic literature. Now, if you're interested in exploring the classics in the description below, there is a link to my Patreon. It's called the Seriously Well-Rad Book Club, and every month we read a work of classic literature like Pride and Prejudice or The Great Gatsby, The Odyssey, that sort of thing. And every week I push I publish a video there that's only available to subscribers. You know, it's usually 30 45 minutes to an hour um digging into that. It's a book club, but we also have discussions on Voxer about the book.

[00:02:05]That's where the real magic happens is you get involved with a community of like-minded people who want to become well read.

[00:02:13]So if you do participate in that and you do start to read classic literature or even if you decide to read classic literature on your own without uh without my guidance, which is certainly okay. I mean, I hope you'll you'll like me well enough to want to want to participate there. But if not, I I totally get it.

[00:02:32]You know what's going to happen, okay?

[00:02:35]And I've got answers for you. And I know you're used to seeing these videos.

[00:02:39]You've probably seen a couple of these before where I talk about how you're going to get a bigger vocabulary and that sort of thing, but that's not this is very specific. Well, first of all, when you're talking about classic literature and you're reading classic literature a lot, you're going to start thinking in a lot larger time scales.

[00:02:57]Okay, this matters and it matters now especially because a lot of people are upset about the state of the world.

[00:03:06]I hate to break this to you, but people are always upset about the state of the world. That's one of the things that you're going to understand if you start having a conversation with these authors from these other time periods is that state of the world, you know, it changes dramatically.

[00:03:24]Not always for the way we like them, okay? But you'll begin to tell, okay, how much of these changes are going to matter 50 years from now, 100 years from now. Some of them will, some of them won't. Okay? But you're going to think about things with a longer perspective.

[00:03:40]That's going to be good. Also, you're going to notice something else, too.

[00:03:44]Technology changes rapidly. All right?

[00:03:47]Um, especially now, it's it's changing more rapidly than ever before. Human nature, on the other hand, is slow to change, if at all. I'm not sure that humans are much different now than they were 400 and something years ago when Shakespeare was writing plays.

[00:04:07]But with this new long-term perspective, you're going to be less impressed with novelty, and you're going to be less impressed with what's fashionable, and you're going to think more about what's meaningful and what's lasting. And these are good changes to make to your mindset, I think.

[00:04:25]For example, if you're reading Shakespeare, you're really gonna get a a sense of what human nature is like, probably better than anything anyone else. You know, um Shakespeare was writing over 400 years ago. That's four centuries ago, and things haven't changed. But, you know, these ideas have stood the test of time. That's why they're classics. That's why we're still reading the plays of Shakespeare. but he had competitors and we're not reading their plays anymore. So, so there's a difference there. But Sherlock Holmes, that was 1887 that Sherlock Holmes was demonstrating for us the power over reason over the power of emotion and how important that is. Um, even The Hobbit 1937, that's almost 100 years ago. It's probably as beloved now as it was then, maybe more so. Okay. So, you're going to think longer term, which is probably a good thing. Now, if you don't want to think longer term, if you want to think shorter term, it could be a bad thing. Maybe reading classic literature is not for you. That's okay, too. You know, I'm not here to sell you on anything. Um, but if you do want to read classic literature and you're curious about the effects of them, that's what's going to happen. You know, you're also going to notice that uh you know, like I say, human nature is not changing nearly as much as the technology that surrounds human nature is changing. Now, we have changed some in response to certain changes in technology and who knows what's going to happen next with the rise of artificial intelligence. I mean, yeah, I mean, who knows?

[00:06:10]Look, they came out with the internet and basically every fact imaginable is now at your fingertips. Okay? Most people sit around watching cat videos or god forbid Mr. Beast. You know, that's not necessarily demonstrating an improvement in human nature because of this new technology.

[00:06:29]What am I talking about here? I'm talking about love. All right? I'm talking about jealousy, talking about ambition, talking about greed. We're talking about courage, revenge, loyalty.

[00:06:40]These are all recognizable now and they're all recognizable in the classics that you're reading. Okay? So, uh you see headlines nowadays and you're going to be less surprised by them because you're going to think, "Yeah, that's what people do." you're not going to be so surprised by events in the news anymore because you know um I'm sure there were people who were surprised at what happened during Watergate with Richard Nixon, but I bet the people who had read McBTH and were familiar with McBTH were familiar with what happens when Ambition takes over. The people familiar with classics weren't surprised at the downfall of Nixon. Also, you're going to realize too that your generation didn't invent all the problems that we're having or even your father's generation. A lot of the problems that we have in society have been around for a long time. And some of them have come remarkably close to being solved while others we seem to have stayed the same. In other areas, things seem to have gotten worse. That's part of having this long-term view, too.

[00:07:46]I like to think of the classics or reading the classics as a laboratory for learning how to understand people. And I've got some examples for you. Okay?

[00:07:54]These are some of my favorites, too. The Great Gatsby is a book that I return to and read every year. Okay? And it's about status. It's about wealth. These are things that apply just as much today as they did a hundred years ago when F.

[00:08:07]Scott Fitzgerald first published it.

[00:08:10]Great Expectations.

[00:08:12]Wonderful book from Charles Dickens. I reread it every year. It's all about social climbing. People are still trying to climb that social ladder even now.

[00:08:22]It's not too different from what it was when Pip was around. We already talked about ambition and McBth, but uh but the adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Uh what happens when your conscience is telling you to make a decision that is flying in the face of what society thinks you're supposed to do? That's what The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is about.

[00:08:43]That dilemma is one you might face someday. And when you do, it might be nice to have some familiarity with it already.

[00:08:53]So, also, you're going to start to better understand people if you read classic literature. I know that sounds strange, but it's true. You will because for one thing, you're going to get exposed to all kinds of complicated personalities as you're reading the classics. All right. And u you're going to get to see people make decisions without having to face the consequences of those decisions yourself. For example, McBth. Okay. Now, here's a guy.

[00:09:28]He's so ambitious and spoiler alert, uh he's so ambitious that he kills the king. What happens when you become a murderer in uh in light of your ambition? And what happens when you conspire with your wife to do it?

[00:09:43]Well, you don't have to go do that to find out what the consequences are going to be. You can look to the play for what's going to happen. Spoiler alert again, folks. The outcome isn't positive. It's a tragedy for a reason.

[00:09:57]You're going to understand people better. So, you're going to recognize people who are trying to manipulate you faster than you would otherwise. You're going to make better judgment calls when it comes to that.

[00:10:07]You're going to start judging people based on their actions rather than their words. Okay? And you're going to have better judgment when it comes to that.

[00:10:17]It's going to take you a longer time to judge other people. You're going to realize that people are complicated, but it's also going to take you a longer time to trust other people. And this one's been a hard one for me. I've always been one to trust instantly overnight. And um I'm starting to get enough wisdom to realize you can't just trust everything that everybody says when they say it.

[00:10:42]You just can't. Okay. Um I was never a particularly judgy type, but I have grown less judgmental over time, too.

[00:10:51]And I attribute part of that at least to reading classic literature. And I've got examples of that, too. If you go back and read Great Expectations again, or if you haven't read it yet, you really need to because it's absolutely terrific.

[00:11:04]We're reading it in December in the Seriously Well read book club, by the way. But Pip, the main character of Great Expectations, is constantly misjudging people because he doesn't have enough information, and you see the results of those misjudgments. Okay.

[00:11:19]Also, Adakus Finch into Kill Mockingbird, you get to see what happens when you judge individuals versus groups. Okay. And that can be a really good thing. All right. But there's been studies that show that people who read classic literature on a regular basis do better when they take tests about perspective and when they take tests that measure their social cognizance.

[00:11:46]Okay? So, so this is verifiable stuff.

[00:11:49]This isn't just the rantings of your uh of your silly bookish uncle uh on YouTube. There's actually some proof of this out there. Um, yeah, it's not overwhelming data or anything like that because, you know, it's it's not really highly funded like certain other things that are really important. Maybe it should be. Maybe maybe the effect of reading classic literature is more important than we think. Um, but you know there are people out there or at least there used to be people out there researching things like what's going on with the environment and the climate and uh and I can see why you might want to spend more money and time looking at that. Okay, so uh also uh your moral imagination is going to improve. Okay, moral imagination. What is moral imagination? I'd never heard this expression before. I read some books from Stephven CVY. Steven CVY is the guy who wrote seven habits of highly effective people. He talks about moral imagination. It just means being able to put yourself in another person's shoes.

[00:12:50]It means imagining what it would be like in their situation. That's moral imagination. Okay? When you have a strong moral imagination, it's impossible to not demonstrate more empathy. And I've talked about that in other videos, too. How reading fiction increases empathy. More empathy generally means stronger relationships.

[00:13:13]Everybody wants stronger relationships.

[00:13:15]Everybody wants connection. Nobody wants to be alone and isolated because they can't relate to other people. So, strangely enough, this solitary activity of reading classic literature is going to help you in your interpersonal relationships too.

[00:13:32]Why does literature improve your uh moral imagination? Well, for one thing, okay, you're going to experience situations that you're probably never going to be in repeatedly. So, you're going to develop that ability just by practice because you're going to be imagining these situations. Okay, so that's another one. Uh, another one is the literature asks hard questions. And as one of my viewers pointed out in the comments the other day, you know, the quality of your questions is going to help determine the quality of your life.

[00:14:01]Um, I believe they were quoting Anthony Robbins. I'm not sure that Anthony Robbins came up that with that himself.

[00:14:08]He might have. But at any rate, it's not a bad thing to consider. The quality of the questions that you ask have a direct effect on the the the quality of life that you have. And literature's not afraid to ask you those hard questions.

[00:14:23]And that's going to make you think about things in a ter a terribly different way than before.

[00:14:29]Not terribly as in bad, but as in terrifically or incredibly big time.

[00:14:37]Great literature is going to expose you to the idea that good people can make some really awful decisions. Okay. Um, it's also going to make you realize that ethical questions are usually a lot more nuanced than you might think. They're not quite as black and white. I think black and white thinking is one of the things that's wrong with society in general right now. We've got way too much black and white thinking and way too little respect for nuance. But another thing that you're going to notice in classic literature and in real life is all the villains, they think they're the heroes. That's not just in classic literature. That's in modern literature, too. But in the stuff that lasts, that's really true. Okay. Um, and I've always said I've always said a Star Trek movie is only as good as its villain, which is why The Wrath of Khan is so great. And it's also why um, the next one, The Search for Spock, is so cool, too. But you can point to movies, works of fiction where the villains are cardboard cutouts, and they don't necessarily think they're the good guys. They don't necessarily have any kind of nobler motivations. and they're far less interesting. As a result, once you've had a little practice at inhabiting other people's lives that that aren't your own, you're going to develop this moral imagination. And the greatest example of this that I can think of in in classic literature off the top of my head, and I'm sure there are better examples than this, John Steinbeck's respect and admiration for normal people, normal everyday people, is just amazing. the the amount of compassion that he has is is just wonderful. Um, and we were talking about a mutual friend. He and a f friend friend of mine and I were talking about John Steinbeck. And we were talking about a mutual friend who wasn't present. And you know, our friend doesn't have a pot to piss in or window to throw it out of. But if you need help, she's always willing to help no matter what you ask her. And that's what my friend pointed out in the grapes of wrath. Ma Jode tells her son that he says, "Look, if you need help, go to the poor people. They're the ones that are going to help you."

[00:16:54]Okay, so I know I've talked about this before and I said I wasn't going to talk about it again, but I am going to talk about it again.

[00:17:02]Reading classic literature will improve your vocabulary. It will improve your ability to communicate. For one thing, you're gonna see sentence rhythms repeatedly that are just more elegant and more beautiful than what you would have come up with on your own. Okay? And you're going to uh see your voice just expand naturally.

[00:17:28]Your mind is going to expand naturally because of exposure to these ideas. And that's g you're but you're going to be able to communicate more clearly because you're gonna have more words at your disposable to communicate with. You know, better vocabulary, better sentence structure, and it's happening naturally.

[00:17:44]Nobody's teaching you this. You're just going to pick it up over time. That's what I've seen happen. That's why I'm such a terrific communicator, right? You watch my video and you think, "How can I be as silver tonged as that old Randy Ray?" Well, here's how. Read classic literature and someday you can be just as eloquent as I am. Haha. And here's something I discussed with a friend of mine. He's a college professor.

[00:18:08]The rise of AI has made some university administrators start to think that writing is not as important as a skill as it used to be because AI can do your writing for you now.

[00:18:25]So, how can you save money as a college administrator? Well, you just have fewer writing instructors per student. So, your freshman composition classes where you used to have a ratio of, you know, one instructor for 100 students, well, now maybe you have one instructor for every 200 students because writing is not as important as it used to be.

[00:18:45]Here's what they're missing.

[00:18:47]Better writing. Learning how to write better means learning how to think better.

[00:18:53]Once you learn how to think better, then you're going to learn how to talk better, too. you're going to communicate better because you're you're just thinking more clearly. Clear thought leads to clear writing leads to clear speaking.

[00:19:06]And like I say, you're gonna absorb all this stuff unconsciously. You're going to develop style as a writer and style as a speaker unconsciously over time.

[00:19:15]That's going to be different from people who don't read the classics. And I've got some examples of how different writers throughout history use words in different ways. For example, Charles Dickens is probably better at descriptions of characters than anybody.

[00:19:33]He's incredibly vivid when it comes to that. Um, when it comes to just writing a beautiful sentence or writing really lyrical pros, you can't beat F. Scott Fitzgerald. Okay. Um, in terms of writing clear sentences and clear paragraphs, making something easy to understand while still elegant and readable.

[00:19:54]Find me someone better than John Steinbeck. I'll wait. Okay. Yeah.

[00:19:59]Shakespeare coined thou literally thousands of phrases. You know, most of the little homalies and sayings that we have come from one of two sources in the English language. they come from the King James version of the Bible or they come from Shakespeare. One of those two sources, almost all of them, like 90% of them come from one of those two sources.

[00:20:23]You're going to become more uh comfortable with complexity, too.

[00:20:28]Because literature doesn't just ask hard questions, it also doesn't usually offer easy answers. In fact, I would say stuff that offers easy answers doesn't generally become classics. Um, I don't usually talk negatives about books, but I'm gonna mention a book right now that I just absolutely hated.

[00:20:48]It was called The Midnight Library. I think the author's name was Hey, but I thought they just oversimplified things to an absurd level. I generally like books that uplift people, but it was like, let's take It's a Wonderful Life and let's take that miss message and let's hammer it home even harder. And uh, and I was just disappointed. That's a book that I'm sure will be forgotten over time. But you'll also learn that multiple interpretations of an event can be true. That's something that you're going to learn. You're going to, like I said earlier, be more comfortable with nuance. You're going to be less likely to think in black and white terms, but you're also going to become more comfortable with that ambiguity. A lot of people don't like it. A lot of people get really uncomfortable when the answers aren't easy and when the answers aren't clear. They want to think that everything you need can be solved with common sense. But it ain't so, folks.

[00:21:44]Life is more complicated than that. The world is more complicated than that.

[00:21:51]And there are people who are watching this video right now who are going to disagree with this if they even get this far. But reading the classics will make you more humble intellectually. All righty. Generally speaking, maybe not in Steve Donny's case. Ha, got you, Steve.

[00:22:08]I thought you'd like that. But you'll also find that as your amount of certainty decreases, your amount of wisdom increases. All right. Um, and you know, you look at Great Gatsby himself, or you look at Hamlet or King Lear, um, George and Lenny and of Men. These are all examples of this principle at work.

[00:22:31]Okay, I've mentioned this one before, too, but it's worth bringing up again.

[00:22:37]Classic literature is going to do more to improve your attention span and focus than reading almost any other kind of literature. And I've had multiple people in the comments sections of my videos today ask me, "How can I improve my focus? I'm a young person. I know that I can't focus. I know that I can't pay attention. What do you suggest?"

[00:22:56]You know, initially I was just going to write a response to all of them that said just read more books, but they need more guidance than that. And I've got more guidance to offer. Don't just read more books. Read more classic literature. And when you do read it, okay, pay attention to how long you're reading before you get distracted. And maybe set a timer. Okay? Maybe your attention span's really low. Maybe set a timer for five minutes or 10 minutes. I can do anything for five minutes. Even pay attention to a single book.

[00:23:26]Once you get to a point where that's easy, you know, try 10 minutes, try 15 minutes. Focus.

[00:23:34]Concentration is a skill. It It's a muscle memory. I want you to think of reading as being like mental endurance training, okay? And you're going to develop more endurance reading the classics because they are more complex.

[00:23:50]They tend to be longer. You do have to spend more time with them to get them.

[00:23:55]For example, yeah, I one of the best lessons I learned in high school was from my American history teacher. We were reading some novels and there were some people complaining that his test questions were too hard. And he said, "You know what? If you think my test questions about this novel are too hard, try reading each chapter twice each week."

[00:24:14]Damned. if he wasn't right.

[00:24:16]It's miraculous how reading something twice can make it easier to understand. That's comes as true for classic literature as everything else. Been reading Pride and Prejudice rely recently. It's a difficult book. There's a lot to keep up with. I mean, there's five daughters in the book and they all have stories of their own. Okay. Uh just keeping up with all the characters takes a little bit of work, takes a little attention. and I'm reading every chapter twice. That's how I getting the understanding that I need so that I can discuss it with my uh book club. Classics demand your patience, but they reward your attention. Okay? You get something out of it. If you pay attention to what you're reading when you're reading the classics, you will see a reward at the end of it and you'll like it.

[00:25:05]And this was a big shift for me. Reading slowly is going to become enjoyable.

[00:25:10]That was a big change for me. I used to be the guy who wanted to have read a lot of books. Okay, that's a very different motivation from liking to read. Okay, if you like reading, why would you want to rush through it? Okay, just so you can hang more skins on the wall. I don't think so. I'm not interested in that.

[00:25:31]The number of books that I'm reading each year has gone down recently. And I was concerned about it at first, but then I realized it. It's just because I'm reading more slowly and I'm comfortable reading more slowly. Okay, I'm learning a little bit about delayed gratification.

[00:25:47]Hard books are less intimidating now than they used to be. I used to think there's no way you're going to be able to handle war and peace, but I know I'm going to be able to tackle war in peace now because I've tackled other classics and I've seen success with them repeatedly. So, I'm really excited about that. But that's all about focus. It's all about concentration. It's all about eliminating distraction, which is an important thing in this day and age.

[00:26:12]And when you can concentrate better, you're going to find learning anything is going to be easier. And that's going to help you in any area of life. It's always going to be good to be able to learn quickly. And this is another one where there have been multiple scientific studies that show that reading uh improves attention comp comprehension and long form concentration.

[00:26:40]You're also going to start to see how you can participate in history's greatest conversations.

[00:26:49]Writers constantly refer to the works of previous generations of writers. That's what they do. Almost everything you read in terms of American literature or English literature is heavily influenced by the Bible and by Shakespeare. And it's not just literature that does this.

[00:27:08]But if you're reading classic literature, you'll realize that this is happening faster. Why would you not want to converse with the greatest minds of their ages? Okay. But it's not just books that do this. Okay? You'll notice that movies do it, too. They refer to older movies. Songs refer to older songs. If there's ever been a more self-referential type of music than country western music, I haven't heard it yet because it seems like every other song, at least for a long time, was about Hank Williams, you know. Um, and that's okay.

[00:27:41]In fact, it's natural. Politics, philosophy, those are all parts of this conversation that's going on between us and the past.

[00:27:51]and references everywhere will start making sense to you when they didn't make sense to you before. That's one of the outcomes that comes from reading classic literature.

[00:28:04]Reading classic literature is one way to become culturally literate and not just in a pop culture kind of way. Yeah, I know who The Sopranos are and I watched Breaking Bad, but you know, I also understand what's going on in Hamlet and uh I also realized that The Hobbit shouldn't have been split up into a trilogy of movies because it's too short a book. But Tolken, what's segue into that is a good example of this because he loved medieval literature. And so the Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit among other things is a conversation that he's having with the people who wrote medieval literature. Um Steinbeck, John Steinbeck, practically everything he writes echoes the Bible in places.

[00:28:49]Every detective story that you read references Sherlock Holmes in some way.

[00:28:55]Every detective story you read is heavily influenced by the works of Arthur Conan Doyle. Okay. this the examples are countless and being able to see those man that's just fun too. Okay, it's not just cool and and important but it's fun to recognize these references.

[00:29:17]Here's the biggest benefit of all from reading classic literature I think.

[00:29:21]Okay, you start to become the persons that you admire.

[00:29:27]Books provide role models for you. Okay, for the kind of characteristics that I hope you want to develop in yourself. For example, you'll find models of integrity.

[00:29:44]You'll find models of uh curiosity, perseverance, you'll find models of wisdom in books.

[00:29:51]We imitate these stories that we hear.

[00:29:54]And the more often these stories are repeated to us, the more closely we imitate them. So yeah, you want to become a better person. Well, you know, reading classic literature is the way to do it.

[00:30:08]I mean, let's face it, great literature is going to offer better heroes for you to worship than social media will. Okay? The Bible's going to offer you examples of courage.

[00:30:20]Uh, Attakus Finch chooses integrity.

[00:30:23]Sherlock Holmes chooses reason.

[00:30:25]Huckleberry Finn chooses conscience.

[00:30:29]Steinbeck's characters and and narrators believe in simple human dignity. Allan Quartermain from U King Solomon's Minds among other adventure novels. That kind of quiet competence and endurance that he demonstrates there. These are qualities worth developing in yourself, too.

[00:30:53]Here's what classic literature or reading classic literature won't do for you. It's not going to make you smarter overnight.

[00:31:00]It's not going to change your personality overnight.

[00:31:06]It's not going to guarantee that you'll be successful.

[00:31:10]At least not in terms that that some people might think. Okay? But okay, over the years, page by page, book by book, it's going to reshape the way you think.

[00:31:22]That's what classic literature is going to do. in all kinds of ways. You're going to have a better sense of history.

[00:31:29]You're going to have a better attention span. You're going to have more empathy.

[00:31:33]The way you use language is going to improve.

[00:31:37]Most important, you're going to learn. I wrote this down so I wouldn't forget it because I do prepare for these, believe it or not. But you're going to learn that the world changes constantly, but humans don't change much at all. They change very little. And that's why these classic books last. Not because they're old, not because the English teachers love them, and because the English professors love them, but because they're true.

[00:32:04]Thanks for watching. Until the next video, please folks, stay hydrated. It's more important than you think. And stay sexy. book. I love you and I'll see you in the next